Attachment for serving tray



W. F. MARSHALL ATTACHMENT FOR SERVING TRAY Filed Feb.

R O T h E V WL m w m M F W l L W.

ATTORNEY United States. Pa O a.

ATTACHMENT FOR SERVING TRAY William F. Marshall, Edinburg, Tex assignor to i Alma L. Bird, Falfurriasfliex.

Application February 24, 1955, Serial No. 490,209

4 Claims. (Cl. 311--22) This invention relates to a device for temporarily disposing of waste material.

In recent years, the drive-in restaurant has become very popular. This is especially true in the warmer sections of the country where it is practical for such restaurants to remain open through out the year. In these sections, the habit of patronizing such restaurants becomes thoroughly ingrained in a substantial portion of the population to the point where they will not willingly patronize any other type of restaurant. In the drive-in restaurant, the patron drives into a parking lot surrounding the principal establishment and parks. An attendant takes the order of the occupants of the car and brings the order to the car on one or more trays. Such trays are commonly fitted with hooks and support devices whereby the trays may be temporarily secured to the side of the automobile adjacent the window so that the occupants of the car may eat the food while seated in the car.

It is the practice in such establishments to make exten sive use of single use facilities such as paper napkins, cups, plates and the like. During the meal it is frequently desired to dispose of one or more of these pieces of eating equipment in order to provide additional room for eating the next course of food. At present there is no readily available means for disposing of this waste material, leaving the occupant of the car with the alternative of either placingit on the floor of his car or of throwing it on the ground in the parking lot. Usually he chooses the second alternative with the result that there is an accumulation of unsightly litter which makes the location less attractive to subsequent patrons.

It is the purpose of this invention to provide a convenient receptacle auxiliary to the presently existing trays into which the waste material may be placed by the patron without inconvenience. Such receptacles can be easily handled in connection with the present trays and when so used are most valuable in promoting neatness about the grounds of the restaurant without substantially adding to the cost thereof.

The invention disclosed herein may best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure l is an isometric view of a serving tray attached to an automobile and adapted for use with my invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-section of the invention of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view showing the attachment of the receptacle to the tray; and

Figure 4 is an elevation, in section, of a modification.

Referring to the drawing, a tray is suported on the window sill 12 of an automobile by hooks (not shown). A prop 14 rests against the side of the door to further support the tray.

The tray 10 is generally rectangular in shape, a size of 12 by 16 inches, being well suited for usual requirements. If desired, the tray may be cut away at the front inner corner 18 to permit clearance of some automobile ventilating windows.

As is common with most such trays, there is an 2,858,178 Patented Oct. 28, 1958 upturned edge 20 entirely surrounding the tray, to prevent the articles carried thereupon from falling off.

At one side, preferably in one of the more inaccessible areas of the tray, there is provided a substantially rectangular opening 22 in the tray 10. The opening 22 is provided with upturned edges 24 of about the same height as the outer edge 20 of the tray.

Preferably, they are slanted at about the same pitch as the outer edges so that the trays may be stacked one upon the other, in the same manner that the ordinary type tray may be.

Just sufficiently smaller than opening 22 to be conveniently received therein is bag 26. This bag may conveniently be formed of open mesh string of the type commonly employed for laundry nets and dish cloths. In order to addsuflicient weight to the bottom edge so that the bag will naturally fall open when freely suspended, a stiffening element 28 may be secured to the bottom of the bag in any convenient manner as by overcast sewing. If desired, the stiffening element may be a length of galvanized wire intertwined in the strings of the bag.

The bag is held in place in the opening by means of a series of books 30 sewn or riveted at 32 to the bag. It is preferred to employ two or more of these hooks per side to closely conform the edges of the bag to the margin of the tray. The outside loop 34 of the hooks clips over the inside rim of the edge 24.

Conveniently the bag may be made with an opening about 4 by 7 inches and a depth of 5 inches. In such a size the opening is ample to receive a crushed paper cup or a paper plate folded approximately in quarters. The openings in the net are sufiiciently large to permit liquid to drain out yet the bag will retain all but the smallest debris. The bags are easily removed for emptying yet are held firmly so that they will resist a comparatively firm thrust when the paper is thrust into them. The bags are also easily laundered for sanitation.

For use with existing supplies of tray, a modification is shown in Figure 4. In. this modification, the stifiening band 36 may be applied to either the outer or inner, upper edge of the bag to hold the bag open. The clips 30 are applied to but one side of the bag and the bag may then be clipped to one of the outer edges 38 of the tray 10.

The operation and management of the bags is substantially the same as in the preferred modification. While bags attached to the outer rim of the tray only cannot take quite the degree of rough treatment applied to those secured on all four sides, it has been found that they afford a great convenience to patrons of drive-in restaurants.

It should be understood that I am not limited to the use of net cloth in the manufacture of bags 26 as they can be made of other suitable material such as wire screen cloth. Also, in place of a series of clips along the side of the bag, a single continuous clip may be substituted.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above disclosure. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

I claim:

1. For use with a shallow fray having an opening within the border thereof, said opening having upturned margins, an opentopped receptacle formed of open mesh fabric having an opening conforming substantially to the tray opening in size and shape and clip means, said clip means being adapted to hold the upper margin of the receptacle in juxtaposition with the tray opening so that the lower part of the receptacle may hang pendant.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the receptacle is provided with stiffening means about the bottom tocause it to hang freely.

3. In combination, a shallow tray, means for supporting the tray above its flat underside, a substantially rectangular opening within the border thereof, an opentopped; open mesh receptacle having an opening conform ing substantially to the tray opening in size and shape and means for holding the margins of' the receptacle in firm engagement with the margins of the' tray opening 7 so that the lower part of the receptacle, may hang pendant below the floor of the tray. 1 4. The structure of claim 3 wherein the bottom of the bag is weighted about the edges to enableit to hang freely. References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 208,807 Gillard Oct. 8, 1878 646,084 Thompson Mar. 27, 1900 646,128 Price Mar. 27, 1900 Burbey Apr. 11, Lewis June 25, Brown Nov. 12, Curtis July 28, Gold Sept. 1, Thomason Jan. 12, Greist June 10, Strickland Aug. 25, Provost July 12, Johnson Dec. 25, Clements et al. July 29, Levesque 'Mar. 17, Wheeler Nov. 10,

FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain June 21, France May 10,

(Addition to No. 861,988)

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